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Long-winding road comes to successful end

McGookey Law

Apr 4, 2013

The world of securitized lending, as I call it, never ceases to amaze me. Increasingly, surprises seem to be found around every corner of the journey of a homeowner’s fight with the bank to save his or her home against foreclosure. One of the biggest (and nicest) surprises we have encountered to date happened recently, as we guided David along the path to security in his home. David’s journey began years ago, as he started falling behind on the monthly payment of his $150,000 mortgage, leading his bank to sue him for foreclosure. The bank wasted no time in following up the foreclosure complaint with a motion for summary judgment, a motion which the trial court eventually granted.

Undeterred, we exercised David’s right to appeal the trial court’s ruling, arguing that genuine questions existed as to whether the foreclosing bank established that it was the proper party to be seeking foreclosure. After three years of litigation, several months ago the court of appeals agreed, reversing the trial court’s decision in favor of the bank, and sending the case back to the trial court for a trial. That, as it turned out, was the break we needed. In the past two weeks, David’s bank has agreed to accept $15,000 as full payment on his $150,000 mortgage. To say it another way, for whatever its reason, the bank made a tactical decision to walk away from 90% of the mortgage balance, rather than continue the battle. Thus, should David be able to raise the $15,000 buyout amount, the last corner we rounded along the long road of his mortgage journey led to such a pleasant surprise we can safely say it was well worth the trip.

Note from the author: If you have questions or comments regarding this or any Foreclosure Story article, please visit www.mcgookeylaw.com

Next week: Bank Duplicity Strikes Again!

Copyright 2013 Daniel L. McGookey

This is a weekly column by Sandusky attorney Dan McGookey, devoted to telling true stories of homeowners who have been victimized by a lending system that makes it profitable to foreclose. The names used have been changed for privacy purposes.